


A forever in a realm of foam and waves

by LunacyCorbanKingsley



Category: One Piece
Genre: Adorable Monkey D. Luffy, Can be read as a ship or not, Caring Roronoa Zoro, Cute, First mate! Roronoa Zoro, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, How Do I Tag, Hurt Roronoa Zoro, Hurt/Comfort, I Will Go Down With This Ship, Light Angst, Luffy Being Luffy, M/M, POV Roronoa Zoro, Post-Thriller Bark, Protective Monkey D. Luffy, Protective Roronoa Zoro, Zoro would die for his Captain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-27
Updated: 2020-09-27
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:41:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26683855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LunacyCorbanKingsley/pseuds/LunacyCorbanKingsley
Summary: What if, after Thriller-Bark, Luffy went to talk to Zoro and learned about the deal he made with Kuma?
Relationships: Monkey D. Luffy & Roronoa Zoro, Monkey D. Luffy/Roronoa Zoro
Comments: 8
Kudos: 220





	A forever in a realm of foam and waves

**Author's Note:**

> I hope whoever reads that enjoy it. I've wanted to write something like that for ages and never quite worked up the courage to do so but apparently all it took was a boring class so here we are.  
> I'm not a native speaker so if you spot anything weird please let me know.  
> Constructive criticism is always appreciated.
> 
> Enjoy!

_**A forever in a realm of foam and waves** _

After the events of Thriller Bark, as they were on the way to Shabaody according to what Lola told them, Luffy was sitting on the head of Sunny as always. Although the usually bright and happy Captain was frowning and every now and then, a dark look flashed in his eyes.

He didn’t know exactly what but he knew a few of his crew-mates were hiding something from him. Well, not really a few but at least two of them. He noticed the looks his cook was sending towards Zoro. The chief seemed quite worried about the other in a way he never was. He would usually tell him off and mock him for getting so injured. The swordsman was ignoring him and acting as if everything was fine and as if nothing happened at all.

But Luffy never was stupid, no matter what everyone thought. He may not be smart in the standard way but if there was something he knew, it was people, and especially his first mate. No matter if every single person who met the Straw Hats thought they didn’t have any kind of hierarchy, the crew knew that no matter what happened, if the Captain wasn’t around they’d all turn to Zoro. Even Sanji who was always fighting with the directionnally challenged young man would look at Zoro for instructions if needed. Of course, he’d never admit it, even in the privacy of his own mind.

One of the only thing the crew would always know for sure was that Zoro would always know and do what Luffy wanted, no matter how much he hated it. But now the balance was broken. For the first time since the swordsman agreed to join his friend’s crew, he was hiding something from him. When Luffy tried to confront him about the situation, the green-haired man practically begged him not to ask him directly. He could hide something from his captain without feeling too guilty, but he could never lie directly to his face.

So Luffy didn’t ask but he made sure his first mate understood that if things didn’t get better any time soon, he would make him tell the truth, no matter whether he liked it or not. He wasn’t planning to actually do it but after the nth night the swordsman woke him up at night by getting out of their cabin after waking because of a nightmare, he started to think about it more thoroughly.

At one point, Zoro stopped sleeping in his bed most of the time. He just laid on the deck all night, rarely sleeping. He started taking more and more naps during the day, always close to where Luffy was and where he could hear him even while he wasn’t awake. Soon, the dark circles under his eyes started to get darker and darker and his skin took on a sickly colour.

The Captain decided to intervene when Chopper began to worry that the exhaustion would hinder his healing.

* * *

Luffy went to confront Zoro at night when, once again, the green-haired man didn’t come in to sleep, as he was prone to do these days. The elastic man went in the crow’s nest where the other was that evening. The swordsman was sitting close to the window, the pale moonlight bathing his form and making him appear even paler and sicklier. His cheeks appeared sunken and the bandages wrapped around his torso were stained with a bit of blood.

“Does Chopper know your wounds reopened?” Luffy asked, getting closer to his first mate, one of his finger hovering over the blood-stained gauze.

“Of course he doesn’t, he’d worry and nag me all day,” the other grumbled.

The Captain smiled weakly and stared at his friend with big worried brown eyes.

“Zoro’s mine, right?” he asked.

“Of course, captain. Always.”

The smaller boy looked down with a pout on his lips.

“Then why won’t Zoro tell me what’s wrong? Zoro ‘s hurting and he won’t tell me why.”

The swordsman finally turned away from the window to face his Captain properly. He stared into his eyes for a moment, seemingly searching for some sort of answer. When he apparently found what he was seeking, he sighed and closed his eyes, his body releasing all the tension it had accumulated during the past week. He swallowed a few times and opened his mouth to say something before cutting himself off.

Luffy got even closer to him, until he was practically sitting on the other’s lap, his head resting on Zoro’s shoulder.

“You can tell me, I promise I won’t be mad. I can’t be mad at Zoro. Ever.”

A self-depreciating laugh escaped from the swordsman lips before he could stop it. He shook his head a few times, frowning.

“You would. I broke a promise I made you.”

The Captain pouted and sat a little straighter. He put two fingers against the other’s cheeks and said “Zoro can’t know if I’ll be mad if he doesn’t say what he did.”

The green-haired man pushed him away, grumbling that if he was sitting on his lap at least he shouldn’t be annoying. The straw-hatted captain laughed a little before going back to his previous position, although his face was resting against the other’s neck.

“Please, Zoro,” he whispered, “tell me.”

The swordsman opened his eyes, leaning his head to the side to rest his cheek on top of the other’s black hair. He took a profound inspiration and when he started speaking, his voice was almost drowned by the sound of the waves far below barely above a whisper.

“Do you remember when I agreed to join you?” He waited until the other made a small positive noise. “I told you that if you ever got between me and my goal I’d cut you up.”

“Yeah,” Luffy breathed out, “I told you I expected nothing else from the Pirate King’s crew-mate.”

“Hmm… I broke that promise the other day.” He stopped there, unsure of if he should keep going or not.

His Captain kept silent for a while, simply listening to his first mate’s breath and enjoying his warmth. It was rare for Zoro to allow the boy to be so clingy. Usually he would just push him away if he tried to cuddle with him and the dark-haired pirate was well decided to enjoy it as much and as long as he could. After a few minutes, he nudged the other, silently asking for him to continue. Before starting again, he sighed and closed his eyes once more, unwilling to see the anger he was sure would appear in his Captain’s eyes.

“I wasn’t planning to do it, you know? Two weeks ago if you’d asked me if I’d be willing to kill you to get to my dream, I wouldn’t have hesitated a second before saying yes,” he laughed sadly. “But I couldn’t help it. When Kuma came to you and tried to kill you, I couldn’t just let him. I… I just… I couldn’t…” he stopped for a while, trying to get his breathing under control.

The silence stretched for a minute before Luffy took a hold of his hand and he started talking again.

“He came towards you and I just told him to stop. I told him he could have me if he wanted, as long as he didn’t touch you.”

This time when he paused, it wasn’t to get his emotions back under control but because of the sharp intake of breath he felt his friend take. It was because of suddenly crushing grip of the other’s hand on his own. His thumb rubbed a few reassuring circles on the back of the appendage until it stopped being so tight. He brought up his other arm and wrapped it against the smaller boy’s shoulders, feeling him shaking against him.

“What did he do?” The whispered question was cold, holding all the rage and fear Luffy felt at hearing that his first mate stood up on his own against a Shichibukai.

“Luffy…”

“No. Tell me,” the words were an order.

“We made a deal. He said that if he took my life instead of yours then I had to experience what you did. He gave me all of your pain and fatigue. He didn’t even stay after that. Nor did he bother to kill me. He was so sure I wouldn’t survive anyway,” he laughed. “Looks like he was wrong.”

While he was talking his Captain’s grip on his hand had slowly gotten stronger again. Not only that but the smaller boy had crept even closer to him, burying his head in the crook of his neck and making sure he kept his whole body pressed against his first mate’s.

“I don’t want you to die. You’re not allowed to leave me, ever,” he swallowed a few time trying to stop himself from crying. “Captain’s orders.”

Zoro opened his mouth to protest, about to tell him that he couldn’t promise that. That no one could keep such a promise since everyone had to die one day or another. But then he stopped, watching as his usually so strong captain broke down in his arms. He felt the straw-hatted pirate’s shoulders shake with the near silent sobs he let out.

Seeing the kind of trust he once thought no one could ever feel towards him made him realise something. No matter what happened, what stood in his way, be it other pirates, the navy, the elements, the entire world or even death, he would come back to his captain. He would come back or die trying and his friend would at least know that he was the only thing occupying Zoro’s mind in his dying moment. He’d know that his last breath was used to utter Luffy’s name one last time.

So he smiled and nodded, burying his nose in the other’s dark hair. He inhaled, filling his lungs with the smell of the sea clinging to his captain. The boy really was born to be the pirate king, the odour of his kingdom embracing him, as if it were a greeting.

“Look, this is your realm, as long as you’re sailing its water, you’ll always be free,” the waves seemed to say.

Exhausted, Luffy finally fell asleep, cradled in his first mate’s arms, reassured by his warmth. Zoro stayed up all night, bathed in the moonlight and humming quietly along the sounds of the sea.


End file.
